3D-Printed USB Cassette Tape is a Retro Tune-Trading Treat

Remember mix tapes? If you were lucky enough to have a big music collection and a two-deck tape player, you could hand-pick songs and record them right from professional-grade originals. If you weren’t as lucky, you’d wait all day for the song you wanted to come on the radio and then hold a recorder up to the speakers to capture the perfect tunes. Either way, every song was carefully selected and lovingly arranged to convey just the right message to the recipient.

The folks at MakerBot were feeling a little nostalgic for the days of mix tapes, so they came up with the MakerBot Mixtape, a 3D-printed USB storage device for MP3s. On it, you can store a playlist of your choosing, then hand it off to someone special.

The Mixtape comes in two varieties: a pre-made version for people who don’t have their own MakerBot Replicator at home, and a kit to print and assemble one at home for those who do. Both versions come with a USB cable to plug the mixtape into your computer. Although the aesthetic is perfect for using the mixtape to exchange songs, you can also use it as an awesome-looking USB storage device.

submit to reddit
See more in Do It Yourself or under Technology. September, 2012.